Thursday, August 30, 2012

alrighty. so i heard from a few people, that lots of people are afraid of appliqué. is that true? this boggles me. it's not scary at all? but then again it's one of my favorite things because i can take it anywhere and work on it anytime. and i like the hand work.

but i get it it might be scary. so i'm going to talk a little today about appliquéing a doily onto your newly dyed onesie. and then in the near future we'll continue to talk about appliqué, because i think if you knew how to do it the easy way (no not with the raw edges though that would be find too) but with the right tools you to can do some great turn over looking appliqué. ah but i'm getting ahead of myself here. first lets just talk about this onesie at hand.

to make this onesie you will need:

doilies: now if you have heirloom ones and you wont be making anyone roll over in their grave or upset your great aunt maltilda by dyeing them or using them on something other than a decorative coaster...awesome.

if you need to buy some of your own: go here
and joanns has a ton as well. i got mine at joanns (just make sure you buy the crochet doilies not the paper ones).

where do you want the doily? i wanted most of the doily to show on the front but because it was kind of big i wanted it off center. and i thought it would look cute going around to the back.

so from looking at the onesie from the front i liked the off centered look of the top picture...

so next i shifted the onesie on its side (with the hem facing me) and started to pin it in place. (now disclaimer: i am not using a stabilizer because we wont be sewing it on with a machine, it will be done by hand, if you do not feel comfortable skipping this then by all means place a stabilizer.)

make sure your doily is laying completely flat.

and start to pin the front side of your doily down making sure you only pin through the top layer of your onesies.

once you have a little over half of your doily set in place with the pins, shift the onesies so it is facing down, and make sure when you lay your onesie down flat there are no puckers or loose fabric under the doily.

take your threaded needle and bring the needle up through the jersey and the doily.
next take your needle and place it close the first stitch and go back through the doily and the jersey.
take small stitches first around the whole doily, then making an X through the middle. continue to stitch more X's until you feel like it is secured onto the onesie good enough.

okay now lets look at a thinner more delicate doily:
get your pellon and cut it out the shape of the doily. (it doesnt have to be perfect you just have to cover most of the doily so it won't sag where the stitches aren't placed)

next pin in place...

and flip your onesie so the backside is showing. (you may want to place a protective thin cloth under the onesies (so any of the webbing wont get on the ironing board) and a cloth under the iron-just in case)

iron gently till the webbing has melted and adhere's the doily onto the front of the shirt (again the edges might not be perfectly kept down we just want to make sure that the doily stays put)

after you check that it indeed is secured in place repin just to make sure it doesn't travel or anything.

and then repeat all the other steps we did with the doily.

and now you have two adorable looking one of a kind onesies.
next how to will be the ruffled ombre flower onesie...and then i have another fun thing we'll make with all the doilies i bought. :)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

so last week i got to go to a baby shower (yes, by myself during the day while the kids were all in school...but i wasn't going to say that because i feel like i've rubbed that in your face enough and i kind of still want you to like me aside from the fact that i get up to like 7 hours of "opportunity to miss my children"every day. okay no really i'm done.)

it was a dual baby shower for moms that were having girls.

as i got ready to try to find something i wanted to give these two adorable new moms to be, i remembered in my frantic and sad attempt to place in haphazardly organized piles while trying to find something i REALLY needed in my yet to be fully unpacked storage area in my first attempt to make my storage area fully organized i came across a few packages of onesies that i had stored away for such an occasion like this.

so i got out my dye and i got out my doilies and i started to have some fun.
but first lets briefly talk about dyeing.

i've mainly used Rit dye in the powder form.
for some of these onesies i also dyed doilies for these onesies and doilies i used Teal # 4 and Petal Pink
i've yet to try the fuchsia but i'm excited to...we'll see what i can make out of that.
in the near future i would like to try the liquid form of the dye, as i've never tried it and for this project i felt nervous to try something without giving it a trial run before, so if you have pointers by all means leave them in the comment section!

okay so lets talk about the dye and the prep.
first things first read the box and follow the directions on the box on how to mix your dye. and which method you are going to do. i always do the bucket method as i find i can control the saturation of the color or i can do different shades (i.e. ombre)

*prewash your garment or in my case for this project: garment and doily. this will help to take out anything in the garment or in the doily that will make your dye not take as well or unevenly. also it helps so that you don't get shrinkage after the fact.

*different saturations and hues for different fabrics.
this was very true for my doilies. i had some vintage doilies (mainly ivory) that grabbed the dye quickly and soaked in very dark.
the white joann's doilies grabbed the dye at a much brighter "hotter" color.
and the ivory doilies i had grabbed the dye at a less bright more muted yellow-ish tone. (it made my teal more greenish teal)

take into consideration if you are trying to get a close match in color and saturation, try to keep the fabric (or doilies) the same, and keep them in for the same amount of time.

after you play around with your doilies or onesies, rinse them out let them dry, if you dont feel the shade is dark enough, redo them to see if you can get a darker shade.

after you get the desired shade, wash with detergent in the washer. this will ensure that it will not bleed onto anything later on. if you are doing an ombre onesie (we'll talk about that next) i suggest you hand wash it first with something like Woolite
so the color doesn't bleed into the white section before it sets.

one reader had this to suggest:

an artist friend told me to not rinse; air dry then heat set in a hot dryer with the item inside an old pillowcase, pinned closed. When you do wash, use cold water and mild detergent. It's worked well for our projects.

okay now lets talk about different shades or ombre:

i did a whole tutorial on how to make the ombre onesie look here.
in that tutorial i talk about making the dye really strong by not putting as much water as is directed on the box, the look you get is a much brighter and stronger look. this time i wanted to see what would happen if i just followed the box instruction and i wanted to do more of a softer blend up the onesie, and i wanted to make sure the top would stay completely white.
both end up giving you the ombre look.this time what i did differently was:
*dipped the onesie only about halfway up once. the dye traveled up slightly but not as much (i think because the dye wasn't as strong)
*then i let the bottom sit in the dye for about 5 minutes.
*then i dipped the onesie 1/4 of the way down to create a middle shade

i did the same thing with this onesie in the teal color. and then i played around with the doily.
to create the ombre doily i did just like the onesie:
*i dipped halfway into the dye the doily (a wet doily)
*let the bottom of the doily sit in the dye for about 5 - 10 minutes.
*dipped about 1/4 of the way down the doily about 2 -3 times.
* las but not least after i've done all these steps i dipped quickly most of the doily except for the very top of the doily into the dye, and then set it aside to let it dry.

to set the color i did the same thing of letting it air dry, then hand washing in woolight and then threw it in the dryer.

okay now, moving onto the next onesie. this one was again using the dye but this time we took strips of jersey fabric, folded them in half and then ombred them.
i briefly touched on this in the other ombre onesie tutorial. this time we did thicker flowers, and a few more of them to create a nice big flowery mess. :)

then after i played with the ombre and with dying the doilies, i just dyed one of the onesies a solid color and placed the non dyed white doilies on it. simple and cute.

so now that we've talked about how to dye your onesies and the accessories on them...next we're going to do the step by steps on how i attached the doilies and created the flowers and attached them onto the onesies.
that will be in our PART DUEX post. :)
so for now, go get your dye, play around with fabric dyeing and then we'll work on finishing up the cute factor by combining dye and adding the accessories.

ps if you have any questions or if you have insights please post them in the comment section i will interact with the questions there so if you have the same question as someone else maybe i've already answered it!
talk to you soon! :)

Friday, August 24, 2012

i've been busy making things baby gifts this week for a baby shower i was invited to. i made a few different kinds, this one is a simple ruffled ombre flower one.
and well, might as well show you how i made it and the other ones right? :)
so next week watch for how to's on baby onesies and a decor to go with it. i've had fun with it, and experimenting with the dye.
have a fantabulous weekend.
we'll talk soon.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

our family has been trying to create new yearly traditions.
and since we find ourselves in a totally new location in the united states, we will have to try to find new places and things that will be a part of our yearly traditions.
it's kind of fun and exciting.
as you know:
i grew up at the beach. i love everything about it.
the warm sand in between your toes, the sound of the waves, seagulls, and fun excited yells from kids. i love building sandcastles, i love how my hair becomes a big cotton ball frizz fro, no wait i don't like that... i love running back into the water to "wash off" the sand so you can eat some watermelon. i love the smell of salt in the air and the ocean water mixed with surf wax. i love watching the sunset over the water. there is so much i love, that i think secretly i decorate and pick things so i feel like i'm just a jaunt away from the surf.
i miss my ocean.
i've not lived next to the ocean in over 5 years.
yet, i can still close my eyes and hear, see, and smell it.
it is still very much my "happy place" in my mind.

this year jake decided after hearing for a year now, so much about "the beaches of lake michigan" he decided that we would give it a try and see what all the fuss was about.
he misses his ocean too.
so much that the old glory days of surfing with his brother are getting kind of sad for us to talk about because it brought so many fun and sometimes funny memories that it just makes us miss it even more.
sigh.
but then we list and remind ourselves of all the wonderful things we have going on in our lives, how happy our children are how well we are doing, and of all the new and fun things we get to experience being in this neck of the woods.

so for our last hurrah and our attempt to find new places to create reoccurring family events, we packed up and headed out to saint joseph, michigan.
the kids were excited, jake and i were going in with level headed excitedness. we knew it wasnt the ocean, and we werent pretending that it was, but we didn't know what we were going to get.

what we got was this:

just a few of our pictures i've managed to go through (mainly my instagram!)

sheer happiness, nostalgia, relaxation...for everyone.

the husband, when we visited the surf shop (yes they had one!) was given the run down on the best time of the year for surfing the size of the waves and yadda yadda yadda...for the area. he had stars in his eyes, and a huge grin on his face.
throughout the week we played at the beach, walked the cute strip with little shops and restaurants next to the beach which totally reminded me of the stores and cafe's i would walk past on my walk to the beach in my san diego town.
we visited neighboring areas and did some sightseeing and tried out a few different beaches. but by far i think the saint joseph one was my favorite.

i think it was at the end of our first day that jake turned to me as we watched the sunset go down into the lake that he said "i think this is going to be our best new yearly tradition isnt it?"
yeah i think so.
as we were packing up to head home the boys and katie were already talking about "next year when we come back, can we..."
yeah, this was a good new tradition.
lake michigan makes for a great fake ocean, big frizzy cotton ball head and all. till next year saint joseph!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

first off, thanks for the love on the dress and the love of the cute dog. he's a keeper, and we did have a wonderfully productive monday, okay well, i had a good productive day, the dog is still bumming around. he is kind of starting to follow me and tries to hang out with me so he is getting out of her room more. i guess baby steps!
second, look what i found!!!!!
YES! that would be denyse schmidt fabric. which is nice and all buuuuuuutttt....
when i went to my joanns store. which btw i kind of cried when i saw it for the first time when i moved here because it's sad looking compared to the ones i was used to going to in utah and apparently a lot of other people in the area thought it was kind of a sad place too, because the store is moving to a much larger location and becoming more like my utah joanns. which is exciting news all by itself but that's not what's giving me all the exclamation point writing! it's that i got all that lovely fabric (what was left on the bolt) for 75% off baby!!!!! yeah! (first off dont hate me because people around here dont buy up all the DS fabric the minute it gets here, and second off dont hate me because i got it for 75% off, oh okay go ahead and hate, if i was reading this and it didn't happen to me i'd be a little bugged too.) they are so so pretty. and they make me happy.
what am i going to make with it? who cares! love it! going to cuddle it when i need a pick me up!

on top of the fabric and the linen, i also got a bunch of notions i needed. very exciting indeed. :) better get over there before the big store opens up and everything goes back to full price. :)

i started to go through some of our vacation pictures. we went on vacation right before school started. i hope to post them tomorrow.
while going through all of them i noticed one of my turkey's had figured out photo bombing. half of them with my good camera have either a nostril a mouth, top of a head, and so forth from this one child.

thankfully he didn't realize i was also taking tons of pictures from my phone. so i got some good ones with that.

our kids keep getting older and with that they keep getting funner. and kind of funny. i really like that they have a sense of humor. maddening as it may be at times, they do keep us laughing. apparently our dysfunctions have some purpose. and thankfully for my good phone pictures this little monster kept me laughing and will live to see another family vacation...

Friday, August 17, 2012

this week i had a very exciting, sad, weird, fun, happy marker come true for me.
i sent my last child to school.
after 12 years of having at least one small person in my home i now have 6 hours where all my minions/noisemakers/things i call my children are in school.
i thought i was going to have a super hard time with it.
then i didn't.
and then the third day came and then i did have a hard time with it.

on wednesday i went and got a pedicure, shopped (where i FINALLY after TWO WHOLE DANG YEARS, found my yellow cardigan i've been searching and searching for. i found it at old navy and funny the color is "nebraska corn". the dress was found there as well on clearance for $9.99), and then went to lunch at a sit down restaurant with another mom that was celebrating "the last child going to school" marker as well.

so yes, that day was fine, i even sang "it's the best day ever" song by spongebob.
then thursday we had an eventful time of going to joann's getting something's i needed and trying to figure out exactly what project i need to work on first, and had a couple of fun visitors (helloladies!)...went to lunch again...and then had the kids show up from school.

again. no missing them, and feeling like: "uh wait didn't i just send you out the door? i kind of really like this no having to deal with kiddo things for 6 hours straight!"

then today happened:

and well poor buck and i aren't handling our new found freedom as graciously today as we thought we would.
i guess i'm doing okay...
i'm feeling just mildly disoriented...nothing a good written out schedule wont fix...so i'll be fine, give me a couple of more days of wandering around in circles, finally getting a schedule, and then rejoicing in the fact that i actually have the opportunity to miss my children.

but the dog, he's really missing his best friend.

he naps, and hangs out in her room most of the day, and when he's tired of that, he sits and stares at me until he realizes i'm not going to put bows, or fabric, or sunglasses on him, or play dolls on him, as the little girl noisemaker likes to do when she's around. he either then just lays down near me, or goes back to her room. poor guy.

or maybe he's like totally okay with it and is like "dude, finally, MY room all by myself with no stupid bow on my ear! i'm just going to relax."
yeah, i don't think so.
maybe i'll rent a kid to sit on him for a few hours a day while she's gone.

or maybe i'll find him a yellow cardi and a cute dress so his third day crash and burn isnt a repeat on monday.
k, that's it, target, old navy, tj maxx, lunches with friends, and sewing....yeah, that's what i'll have him do so he can see how awesome this new chapter in our life is going to be! :)

Sunday, August 12, 2012

today i get to be on the blog tour for miss angela yosten's new book: Stop. Go. Quilt. Sew!
and i just have to gush a little about this lady.
she is the most delightful person, so genuine, nice and kind, and of course super talented.
as most of you know that 3 of my 4 noisemakers, aka my minions, aka my children, are indeed boys.
i know i know, they are easier in the respect of not as many meltdowns, drama and so forth. BUT when it comes to making things for them...not as easy my friends.
so whenever i see something that is cute and handmade especially for boys...i'm there. now, make a whole book about it... doubly there.

soooo lets talk about this book. shall we?

this book has awesome designs and ideas, and has a great all around feel and look. here are a few of my faves! this adorable do not enter bag. i know sometimes i'm scared of what might crawl out or bite my hand as i open my boy's back pack...why not give a fair warning?

this one way sign is another fave, most of the time i feel like i'm redirecting the boys...this may help them hahahaha. :)

now i have a soft spot for pillows and decor, so uh of course i'm going to love the stop sign and the the speed limit pillow and well might as well add all the other sign pillows on there! too cute, you could also frame them if you don't want them as pillows.
there are quilts, and shirt add ons, and decor, and so much more. i really love this book. good job angela!

okay now angela wants me to talk about one of MY favorite signs and a story behind it:

i've mentioned that i had 4 kids. and that three of them were boys. well the last one is a girl noisemaker.
she had a lot of ear infections her first year so her speech was a little delayed. (she's caught up quite nicely now)
and for the longest time she would make up words or have her own little language if you would, like for example pizza was "choppy", and spaghetti was "spay" those sort of things.
well for the longest time every time we were in the car she would yell in her own language something over and over again and we didn't know what in the heck she was saying. we just smiled and said "yes, that's right! sky!" or "yes, you're right! that's a car!"
YEARS PASSED PEOPLE and we just never knew what in the world the girl was saying.
well, finally the mystery was solved this last year.
see we moved from a remote area momentarily to a very populated area...then to iowa.

and then the girl now a little older and more "wordy" was able to vocalize more.
while in the car she would randomly yell out "santa was here!!"

and we would just scratch our heads and chop it up to "well she is OUR child, and have you seen the siblings? would we expect anything other than randomly yelling out things about santa in the middle of summer?"

one day we were going down a new way and she kept yelling out "santa was here!!"
and then there would be a lull and then again "SANTA WAS HERE!!!"

it took about 4 times till a light bulb came on over my husband's head.
"oh.my.gosh. i think i know what she's talking about."
i look at him like this is going to be good.
and he says "wait for it....wait for it...okay in like 3 seconds..."
and sure enough:
"SANTA WAS HERE!!!!"
i was like "WHAT IN THE WORLD? WHAT IS IT?" then the next time we came to a place where santa was in katie's world he pointed it out to me and the boys:

years people. she's been telling us for years, where santa touches down and lands his reindeer in order to deliver happiness to boys and girls.
yup. i wouldn't expect any less from one of my awesome family members.

i mean when you have a husband that explains these signs as:

"snakes ahead beware 20 Many People Hurt."

we are some kind of special at our house.

okay now:
i have a book to giveaway.

want it?okay here you go:for a chance to win tell me: if you had a sign, what would your sign say?for a second chance to win:what's your favorite kind of project, a fast one or one that takes a little more time. which is more rewarding?**answer in two separate comments, and please include your email address at the end of each comment like this:your email address {at}whatever server{dot}com you have till this friday the 17th to enter.

Friday, August 3, 2012

this summer we've had a couple of firsts. this was our first full summer in the midwest. this summer we went to chicago for the first time. this summer we saw our first scary storm. well scary for us because we've never heard the sirens go off before that day. there was this weird look to the sky and then all of a sudden the clouds were scooped to the side and what was left behind was the greenish dark blue sky. the only way i could describe it was that it looked like someone was skimming their hand next the clouds and pushing them over as they folded over each other. kind of like if you had some soap bubbles on the the top of a bowl of water, and moved the bubbles over to one side. it was eery, as my neighbor and i scrambled to get the patio furniture close to the house or in the house we looked up then looked at each other, we each said "oh swear word" mine was actually that phrase as we stared at it, and then each took a picture and then she yelled at me "GET INSIDE!"
the picture i took didn't do it justice, but i had to get inside before whatever force that was pushing the clouds like that got to where i was standing.
it all ended a few hours later, and a few phone calls finally reaching my husband and son who were out at scout camp, (they were safe in a shelter) we lost power for over 12 hours.

so far the clouds keep our family in awe. i don't think we've ever experienced soooo many cool looking clouds and sky. it's really beautiful. the corn is really on the sad side i've been told due to the lack of rain we've been having...but i'm hoping to get some fun corny pictures. if i could take a picture of the fireflies over the corn fields and do it justice i would.
but honestly it's breath taking and i don't think i could get a picture to even show you that phenomenon. :)

we are really enjoying our surroundings. it's neat to see new things even as a middle aged gal like myself.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

phew!
didn't mean to let so much time go by
well the last couple of weeks have gone in a flash. and honestly, if i can be so bold...i've enjoyed being lazy laid back this summer. gosh i'm going to miss it. but the kids are anticipating school and...okay only 50% of my kids are super excited to go to school, and the other 50% wish that school was optional.
but whatever we're enjoying the last little bit of summer and when we get to first day of school there will be tears and they will be by me and that is enough to make all the kids want to get on that bus. :)
soooo...
last week we had a couple of times that we couldn't go to the pool. i know shocking, but by the end of the summer they do get a little tired of going to the pool every single day and we also had a sick kid. we stayed at home, so to keep myself sane, and the kids entertained we bought some shrinky dink making material.
and can i just say that shrinky dinks are just as fun if not funner as an adult than they were as kids? they really are.
seriously.
so much fun.
i think it ended up being more about me having fun than them. even when the kids were all done, and i was like "lets make this!" and "wouldn't this be cute!!!!" and "lets make it smaller and see how little it turns out!!!"

my kids were like "okay mom. put down the pencil and walk away from the shrinky dink."

we started off first by making our own drawings and the boys walked away with some really fun storm trooper helmets the oldest one drew for them...and then katie brought out a book and asked "can we do hello kitty?!"

YES.WE.CAN.

so we started to flip through the pages...

edited: for all of you asking:
i found my shrinky dink paper at Michael's (of course)
but here's the amazon link to the exact stuff i used:Shrinky Dinks Shrinkable Plastic

and of course there's a whole selection of pre drawn shrinky dinks as well.

so katie picked out some that she wanted to make herself and then i picked out some i wanted to make for myself for her. and then we went to town.

i thought this little croc was such a cutie.
on the package it says you can use color pencils, markers, and crayons, or pens. i tried markers...they kind of smear after they cook, so maybe if you use markers make sure you let them air dry for a little bit.
same thing with the crayons. they seem to stay a little melted for a while.
so i would say the colored pencils are you best bet.
but hey if you like smeary need to wait shrinky dinks...who am i to tell you what's best. :P

see how cute my croc is? i know right?! anyways katie did pretty sweet on her cake as well.

she had me trace the cake and then she colored in the cake.

then i cut them all out.

we made corn and hello kitties and grasshoppers, and puppies, and penguins, and stormtroopers, and spongebobs...man we made a lot of stuff.

any ways it was fun.

and now i have a ton of little shrinky dinks all strewn about my house.
but the memories are there. and i think we may have started something fun...only this time i'm the mom. :)
shrinky dinks rule.